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With the growing outrage surrounding the factory farm industry, there has been a slow but steady movement advocating for the return to small-scale farming as a sustainable, humane alternative to large “animal production facilities.” But even on a small farm, meat production is not exactly a clean or simple undertaking. While animals raised on smaller farms might be well-fed, treated with less (or no) antibiotics, and able to enjoy the luxury of walking around, can there ever really be such a thing as a “humane” farm if the end goal is to sell these animals as meat?
You see, our current system of factory farming did not just spring up out of nowhere, it was created in response to demand. Americans are notorious for their insatiable appetite for meat. The average American eats 207 pounds of meat every year, and the meat industry produces over 90 billion pounds of meat to meet that need. There is no question that is an insane amount of meat. And many Big-Ag representatives would argue that industrialized meat production is the only viable way to produce enough meat to feed ravenous Americans.
The industry has cooked up some pretty crazy schemes to crank animals through production cycles (what some of us might call “life”), stuffing them with feed causing them to reach market weight in a matter of weeks, as opposed to the natural years it may take. Animals in the industrial food complex are commodities, not living breathing beings, and as the result of this they are treated in a manner that can only be described as deplorable (I have a few other synonyms in mind, but I’ll spare you).
Meat Production is Tricky Business
So, the logic behind replacing factory farms with small scale, organic agriculture would follow that animals on these farms are given ample time to grow and develop, leading a life where they can just act like the animals they were born to be, thus making their journey to the market much more humane. Right?
Well…not exactly.
I spent many years as a meat-eater in denial, assuming that if I only purchased meat from small, organic farms then somehow it was okay, even good to eat meat. From a humane stand-point, I imagined these small farms to be very similar to my college’s organic farm, a place where only a few animals were raised and slaughtered in a Temple Grandin approved manner. Well, the more I learned about what farms outside of my experience bubble were really like, the more it became apparent that I was living in a “humane” meat-lover’s pipe-dream.
Even on small farms, raising animals is not always a “humane” process. So, let’s take a closer look at some common practices that take place on these farms.
Common Practices on Small Farms
First and foremost, any meat that is destined to be sold in a supermarket must be slaughtered in a USDA certified slaughterhouse. Meaning, no matter how much love and compassion a pig, chicken or cow was shown in its life on the farm, once it is carted to a steel floor slaughterhouse its final moments on the planet will be filled with pain, fear and confusion. Although the Humane Slaughter Act requires all animals be rendered unconscious before slaughter, the method of choice for doing this is shocking animals with electric prods (because being tazed is always a soothing experience).
According to PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raided one pig slaughter house and documented over 14 humane-slaughter violations where the pigs were either still alive and conscious when placed in scolding water (to remove hair) and a number of animals had be shocked excessively yet remained conscious squealing uncontrollably.
So, bottom line is whether you buy meat from Tyson or a small, idyllic farm in Vermont, if the meat was purchased in a supermarket then the animals were slaughtered in the above fashion.
Second, looking into the conditions in which animals raised on small-scale farms live, we will find a few other troubling things that definitely knock the “humane” title off the table (just check out this piece from a pig farmer who thinks eating meat is wrong).
As this article from DoDo points out, just because a farm is small, doesn’t mean it is cruelty-free. According to first-hand accounts straight from the mouths of small-scale pig farmers, one of the most common practice among farmers is to pierce the septum of pig’s snouts to prevent them from rooting up dirt. This is a natural habit of pigs that like to forage for food and coat themselves in mud. By piercing the septum, every time the pig hits its nose against the ground it is shocked with shooting pains, not being able to dig through the dirt causes stress and frustration in the animals in addition to the constant pain. Castration without anesthesia is also a common practice on pig farms. One farmer even advised making sure “Mama Pigis secured in her stall while you’re castrating the piglets and wear ear defendors.”
People also commonly assume organic, free-range farms are small-scale farms. This is not the case. Most animals that come from organic, free-range farms are raised in a very similar manner to a standard factory farm. Cows raised on organic farms are still sent to feedlots like in the factory farm schema, except they are fed “organic” feed. Organic, free-range cattle routinely have their horns removed and are castrated and branded.
A Truly Better Alternative
Slipping into the meat-lover’s pipe-dream, imagining a happy farm where animals are raised to become cruelty-free meat may be comforting for a time, but once you know the truth behind the euphemistic labeling you may find yourself waking to a nightmare. Don’t panic! There is a life of compassion and good-health waiting for you on the other side.
Afterall, if you considered yourself a conscious meat-eater before, taking that compassion (thought it may have been misguided thanks to clever meat marketing) and channeling it into an animal-free diet is much simpler than you think. Just check out these awesome recipes to help get you started — trust me once you taste them you’ll never look back.
If you are already living a cruelty-free lifestyle or are looking for other ways to help farm animals, check out these seven ways to help farm animals. You can also join Mercy for Animals as well as the Animal Legal Defense Fund in the fight to get more rights for farm animals!
Image Credit: Christopher Michel / Wikipedia Commons
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This article takes a lot of liberties with fact.
1- those numbers you quoted for meat consumption is not actual meat consumption, it\’s meat *ordered* by grocery stores with a disgusting need to have overflowing shelves, which is a psychological ploy, and not a necessity, nor something merited by sales/consumption. I can\’t fathom how many lives are needlessly wasted by the STUPID idea that industrialization is good for food. The fact that we should be consuming less meat is not up for debate. Only the notion that animal life is the only life that is important enough for consideration on this planet (which I frankly find just as wrong as the notion that human life is the only important life.
2- "And many Big-Ag representatives would argue that industrialized meat production is the only viable way to produce enough meat to feed ravenous Americans." OH, good idea, let\’s ask Big Business if they think we can get along without Big Business. *eyeroll* It\’s LITERALLY their JOB to argue that we need industrialized meat production to feed everyone. What was this even included for? Why don\’t you ask Sony if people need video games next? I know! Let\’s go ask if Westboro Baptist what God thinks about stuff.
3- Common does not mean ubiquitous. It is common for vegans to subsist on processed food, but I doubt you would make the leap to saying veganism is an unhealthy diet because of what some people choose to do to cut corners.
Additionally, it is up to each person to research a farm before they buy meat from it. If you (a person) can spend time searching for vegan body care products, you can spend time searching for a truly humane farm instead of just settling for a "humane" farm or being lazy and buying from a grocery store (which people shouldn\’t do anyway because it supports an entire system of waste).
4- "First and foremost, any meat that is destined to be sold in a supermarket must be slaughtered in a USDA certified slaughterhouse." If you give enough of a crap about the environment and animals to be reading this article, you shouldn\’t be shopping at a supermarket/chain grocery for food AT ALL.
5- "Meaning, no matter how much love and compassion a pig, chicken or cow was shown in its life on the farm, once it is carted to a steel floor slaughterhouse its final moments on the planet will be filled with pain, fear and confusion." So, you baselessly claim that all small-farms ship their animals offsite to die? How convenient for your argument. The USDA can certify just about anything, which means small farmers can have a dedicated building on their farm certified as a legal slaughterhouse. All it takes is for a USDA inspector to come out and inspect, then, if they pass, certify their premises. That\’s it. Which means that a small farm that has REAL humane standards can do everything in-house, and not compromise their standards to humane practices at any point from birth to death.
6- "According to PETA" is the best way to start an irrelevant sentence. PeTA is run by unbalanced, hypocritical people who kill more animals than they save (petakillsanimals.com), from their own "shelters" killing 97% of all animals they take in, regardless of adoptability, or their agents offering to rescue animals from veterinary offices, then instead euthanizing the animals in a van behind a store and throwing their bodies in a dumpster, to literally STEALING the pets of people right off their front porch (there\’s even a Youtube video of that one, actually). Do not trust PeTA, or anything they say. You can trust the ASPCA, or Humane Society, or do deep research into other animal groups that actually HELP animals, rather than just "liberating" them from human contact.
I\’m getting tired of going up and down to answer each point you (intentionally or not) mischaracterized, so let me just summarize my overall point:
You can\’t take the worst examples of something, point at them and say "It\’s all like this- and whatever isn\’t like this isn\’t relevant, so forget the whole thing and just do things my way because the other way is a lost cause."
Nothing is set into stone, things changed FROM small-scale, they can change BACK to small scare if enough people want it. Same with the standards- if enough people want the standards to raise, they will. This movement is DEFINITELY undercut by veganism and it\’s "All or nothing" position on animal welfare, which steals voices that would speak to help animals, and makes them mindlessly chant the animal-liberation pipedream, thereby doing NO good for animals where they could have done SOME. Seriously, do you think the meat industry listens to vegans? You don\’t exist to them any more than Chevy drivers exist to Ford.
You also can\’t sit there and proclaim that anyone who isn\’t EXACTLY like you is completely different. People CAN care about animals AND eat them, I know it\’s hard for you to understand such a different perspective, but it\’s true whether you get it or not.
There is NO disparity there when you look at the WHOLE picture (the one that includes plants as sentient beings too). Life must consume life to continue. That is the way it is on this planet, for EVERY LIVING CREATURE THAT TAKES IN NUTRIENTS TO SURVIVE (in contrast to the few that produce all of their own).
Killing to survive is not wrong, it is how nature perpetuates itself. The only issue, then, becomes one of personal bias.
You can see the personal bias of favoring a dog over a pig, but not in favoring a pig over a mimosa fern. That is wrong.
All life is important, and favoring animals SO SEVERELY is no less wrong than favoring humanity over everything. Negating literally ALL plants as though they were no more alive than rocks is wrong. Especially since they are likely more advanced than animals, and even more advanced than we are in some ways.